Are you a Weeaboo?

[Sapphi]

I find it kind of mean and pointless to make fun of weeaboos. Sure, they can be annoying, but why does it really matter in the end? Let them have their fun, they'll grow out of it eventually as they mature and learn more about the world. If not, oh well.

While idealistically I would like to agree, I think there is a point where you have to say enough is enough. "Let them have their fun" is something you say about children. And it's perfectly fine for children to act like children, but it's pretty disconcerting to see college students acting like children all the time. I have that thing you call a Peter Pan complex and am pretty much the last person to recommend losing contact with your inner child, but context is really important. There are certain times it's okay to act ridiculous and there are times it just isn't. Weeabooism is so poisonous to the community because the perpetrators either don't understand or don't care about the difference.

And I wouldn't care at all about the immaturity if it wasn't tied to something I personally care about. Like LWR said, it isn't just an annoying thing people might grow out of, it closes doors and minds. It burns bridges for others. It's kind of like being part of a religious faith and watching someone of the same faith do something that makes it look terrible. Now everyone who saw the act has the wrong idea of what the faith stands for. Then, instead of one bad apple, imagine them EVERYWHERE. That's very frustrating and hard to write off with just "Well, they'll grow out of it eventually." Not like being a fan of anime and manga is exactly the same as having a religion, but you get my point.

[teacup]

I think I used to be a weeaboo as ashamed I am to admit, but I only displayed 'weeaboo' qualities around my friends who liked anime. Other than my friends, no one in my high school ever knew that I liked anime. I guess you could say I was like... a closet weeaboo? This all changed once I took college level Japanese class. Now I can't help but cringe when I hear my friends speaking to each other in mangled Japanese, lol. It has taught me a lot about the culture and I no longer see Japan as a place that only produces anime, it's much more than that.

Now that I've grown up, I can't stand weeaboos. I've been surrounded by weeaboos at anime conventions and been one of the few people standing there awkwardly and being completely embarrassed by their behavior. And mini rant: there are these girls who frequent the local anime store and are always dressed in a strange combo of cyberpunk/catgirl slut/lolita style, while bragging how much they know about shows like Sailor Moon and Inuyasha. They actually make me scared to visit that store now. They always loudly call things 'kawaii' and 'sugoi', are such a distraction, and don't seem to care about the fact that many people go there to read manga in quiet. The worst part? They're clearly much older than me! They look to be in their mid/late 20's - they definitely aren't teenagers. I would love to think that they'll grow out of it someday, but I have doubts that they ever will.

[papillon]

It burns bridges for others. It's kind of like being part of a religious faith and watching someone of the same faith do something that makes it look terrible.

Thing is, these people *always exist*. Any group you can possibly name contains members who behave badly and 'make everyone else look bad'.

Everyone's seen members of religions who behave in terrible ways. And atheists who behave in terrible ways. And members of $InsertYourNationalityHere who behave in terrible ways. And members of $InsertYourEthnicityOrSexualityHere who behave in terrible ways.

"Stop being stereotypical!"

Judging an entire group based on the activities of some members? Is prejudice.

That's not to say you shouldn't attempt to self-police the members of your own group that you have any possibility of interacting with, but flying into an irrational rage about things you can't possibly change isn't healthy. You can't make everyone in your country behave like polished sophisticated internationals just so your friends in other-country will stop making jokes about your fellow countrians.

[Argeus_the_Paladin]

Your post contains a link to the 'tropes. I'm sorry to say I can't take you seriously any more.

I was kidding, mostly. The sad thing is, said joke has a basis in reality. What the site had become of late, to be exact. But that's neither here nor there.

On-topic: While I agree that every population has its portion of people who put it to shame in one way or another, the key difference is "how many" and "how typical"?

Let's take my uni for instance. Pretty sure there should be a few dudes and dudettes with some really weird fetish hanging around the dorms, but there ain't too many of them, they don't make too much noise, and most importantly, when you hear the ANU, "some dudes and chicks with weird fetishes" isn't the first thing to jump to mind. So while they're there, people don't lump them into the rest of uni population because they aren't typical and representative.

When it comes to anime fans and noisy-obnoxious weaboos, it's another thing entirely. They may or may not be the majority of fans, but those who are so, are horrible, to the point that they draw attention to their fandoms anywhere and everywhere they go. Hence people are given the excuse to generalize. And believe me, in the internet age stuffs like this spread like frigging wildfire. The least I could do is to distance myself from the more insane or creepy portion of anime fandom. And not tell anyone I want to take seriously that I actually quite like the art style and sometimes the stories.

Oh and BTW:

You can't make everyone in your country behave like polished sophisticated internationals just so your friends in other-country will stop making jokes about your fellow countrians.

polish

i c wut u did thar.

[papillon]

Yeah, TVtropes is sliding into a bad place lately. I only know a little of what's going on because I don't really follow the behind-the-scenes-stuff, but from what little I've heard it sounds crap.

Still, if you look at the Real Life entry on that one, you can't deny it's relevant.

Loudly bashing the outlying members of your fandom/ethnicity/whatever for being socially inadequate helps cement the idea that all X are like that, rather than just one of many facets. It encourages the idea that it's right and proper to bash weirdoes. And it makes you look mean-spirited and nasty.

polish

... That wasn't intentional! I've only ever known one Polish girl in person and she was really sweet. If I judged the whole country based on her, they must all be lovely!

[HikkiPanda]

normal people just have a hard time accepting that some people are different. Here is my real life example:
Ex1:
Normal person: do you have porn videos that i can copy?
Me: I don't have a real life porn, I only have 1 (ONE - I'm not lying) video of hentai yuri (Sono Hanabira stuff).
Normal person: you freak!!

that normal person have few harddisk filled with only porns. That's probably millions of porn videos ... and I'm the freak one?

Ex2:
there is this huge arguement between honorifics hater and honorific lover in a fansub blog. Lets call it ABC fansub for now. This fansub is normally use honorific but one of their show omit honorific because it's a joint with another group who don't use honorific. So I jump in trying to calm the war
Me: guys, this arguement is pointless. Lets just get the show from other group (I mention 2 groups who always use honorific and doing that show)
Honorific hater: You weaboos!! (he also add insult saying that those groups are crappy because they only do some editing instead of doing actual translation -> the funny thing is, ABC fansub is also edit stuff instead doing any translation lol. So ignorant)

I really don't understand this guy, I tried to calm the war and my comment is not even directed to the honorific hater ... >.>

Ex3
Weaboos are bully? Maybe you're going to show me some internet evidence. I say normal people are bully and I can show you tons of real life evidence.

Edit: Ex4
My friends always make fun of me for collecting anime toys and said that it's a waste of money. one of Them have 10 cellphones (don't forget the monthly fees), the other has a racing type motorcycle (similar looking with those you seen in F1, but with lower specs) ... really, the amount of money I spent on my anime toys is nothing compared to those ...

[LateWhiteRabbit]

that normal person have few harddisk filled with only porns. That's probably millions of porn videos ... and I'm the freak one?

Well . . . look who's being judgmental now! Can't lovers of animated porn and lovers of real porn come together in harmony? (So many puns are possible - )

Weaboos are bully? Maybe you're going to show me some internet evidence. I say normal people are bully and I can show you some real life evidence.

Who said weeaboos are bullies? People have just been saying they are weird, annoying, and socially awkward. No one said anything about them being mean. People don't like things that make them uncomfortable, and that is where a lot of discrimination comes in. I personally try and be nice to weeaboos, because in general, they aren't bad people. But I usually pay for it because it seems so many of them are incapable of picking up on social cues and employing appropriate behavior.

I knew a weeaboo in college who asked me once why everyone was so mean to him. I decided to be honest and told him it was because he never seemed to know when to shut up, and kept talking about things no one wanted to hear even when they were plainly giving signals they were uncomfortable and wanted him to stop. They were forced to be outright mean because it was the only thing that got through to him and made him stop. None of the other subtle, face-saving cues people give in everyday conversations when they want to change topics or leave worked with him.

I occasionally wonder if some of the weeaboos I've met actually have developmental disorders.

[CheeryMoya]

Wow, didn't expect this thread to be resurrected O:

And just dropping by to share a funny yet depressing vid.

We can all agree that this makes you cringe, no? Luckily enough I haven't run into anything this extreme IRL.

[HikkiPanda]

Well . . . look who's being judgmental now! Can't lovers of animated porn and lovers of real porn come together in harmony? (So many puns are possible - )

It's impossible, the normal people around me (including the girls) said that I'm weird for watching hentai. For them (including the girls), watching real life porn are normal and watching hentai is not. Sigh.... . I just want to be left alone, I never care and complaint about their taste in real life porn, so why the hell they keep bugging me >.<?

Who said weeaboos are bullies? People have just been saying they are weird, annoying, and socially awkward. No one said anything about them being mean. People don't like things that make them uncomfortable, and that is where a lot of discrimination comes in. I personally try and be nice to weeaboos, because in general, they aren't bad people. But I usually pay for it because it seems so many of them are incapable of picking up on social cues and employing appropriate behavior.

well, the bullying is usually happen in internet anime forums. But then again, normal people do that too .. and worse, because normal people tend to do it in real life too

I knew a weeaboo in college who asked me once why everyone was so mean to him. I decided to be honest and told him it was because he never seemed to know when to shut up, and kept talking about things no one wanted to hear even when they were plainly giving signals they were uncomfortable and wanted him to stop. They were forced to be outright mean because it was the only thing that got through to him and made him stop. None of the other subtle, face-saving cues people give in everyday conversations when they want to change topics or leave worked with him.

I occasionally wonder if some of the weeaboos I've met actually have developmental disorders.

for me, it's the opposite lol. Normal people around me just don't know when to shut up. Even when I was clearly annoyed (I'm bad at hiding my emotion, so it's definitely shows) they just don't stop with their preaching.

I feel better around my otaku friends, they're way more tolerant and most of them always mind their own bussiness.

[MaiMai]

To be honest people who are normal and not weeaboo and don't know how to shut up are not so much normal as they are people who don't know how to shut up.

Then again what the hell is normal aside from something a large majority can tolerate and even then that sort of gauging is different for everyone.

[SilverxBlue]

normal people just have a hard time accepting that some people are different. Here is my real life example:
Ex1:
Normal person: do you have porn videos that i can copy?
Me: I don't have a real life porn, I only have 1 (ONE - I'm not lying) video of hentai yuri (Sono Hanabira stuff).
Normal person: you freak!!

that normal person have few harddisk filled with only porns. That's probably millions of porn videos ... and I'm the freak one?
.

I've had an experience that's quite similar to that.
In our whole family (In my father's side), there are only two of us that are huge fans of Anime, Manga and Video Games. It's my cousin and I.

My cousin usually gives me good Manga recommendations while I give her good video game ones and then one day she introduced me to a manga called Koe de Oshigoto. It's a story of a 16 year old girl working as a voice actress in an eroge company. I was a bit put off at first, but then I realized that it wasn't Hentai at all. I even enjoyed it since it was a bit hilarious. And then one day, cousin and I decided to watched the anime, then cue the entrance of Cousin B and when he sees what we're watching, he calls the two of "female pervert hentais" and teases us about it in front of our parents.

I was all... Cuz, your cellphone is full of lesbian porn and we never say anything, but when you see us watching an ecchi Anime that doesn't even show anything explicit, you freaking tease us?!

[HikkiPanda]

And then one day, cousin and I decided to watched the anime, then cue the entrance of Cousin B and when he sees what we're watching, he calls the two of "female pervert hentais" and teases us about it in front of our parents.

I was all... Cuz, your cellphone is full of lesbian porn and we never say anything, but when you see us watching an ecchi Anime that doesn't even show anything explicit, you freaking tease us?!

cousin B definitely needs a huge mirror ... . or a good punch in the face ... . or both XD

[RVB]

My friends and I usually use this term flippantly with one another, usually in the following context: "Oh, you're flipping out about the new Kingdom Hearts release? Stop being such a weeaboo." We know its merely for banter. But of course, we do use it when he see... overly-zealous individuals at conventions. Sometimes, there are people who take things far too seriously. Its just a hobby. For others, its a way of life. But that depends on how you view "way of life".

Anime takes up a good portion of my life: I play anime-designed games, I watch anime on Netflix, my closet shoe-shelf is filled with yaoi and doujinshi, I RP online, I'm doing this VN thing, I work for a design company which hired me to draw anime, I enjoy the culture--so when its said like that, it sounds like I am definitely a weeaboo. I am surrounded by it all the time.

However, on the other hand, people wouldn't think that. I don't own anime-related clothing (that I wear outside, anyway). I have cosplay, which is for conventions, and then I have one Dragonball Z t-shirt I got in while I was in middle school--which I oly wear as a night shirt now. My office is in uptown Dallas so I have to be sure to go to work dressed as if I've walked out of a magazine; so usually when I'm out and I start talking to someone because (perhaps they own something anime-related, or are playign a DS so I ask what they're playing), they always say the same thing, "Woooow, just by looking at you I would have never guessed you liked anime!". As if how your dress/look is some automatic staple. And perhaps in a way, its true. Stereotypes exist for a reason.

And of course, I have other things I like as well: fashion, writing, fencing, tea-parties--there are many things that I do outside of my anime fandom. So really, it comes down to what people consider a weeaboo, to define if someone is or isn't one. Sometimes I'll do something and I'll laugh awkwardly and be like, "...Why am I such a weeabooooo..."

So, I am, but I'm not. Simple as that.

[Argeus_the_Paladin]

In my opinion and continuing on my argument a while ago before the thread died, the worst thing about being called a weaboo is that it condenses so many negative connotations into six letters. Assuming you are an American adult, then that name implies that you are:

- A cultural traitor.
- An immature person who never grow up from high school.
- Someone who has not done enough research, or worse, an idiot.
- An irresponsible hobbyist who has too much time on hand and has achieved nothing of note in real life.
- A delusional or lunatic individual. May or may not be linked to point (3).
- An obsessive, creepy and/or pedophilic individual (Lolicon and shotacon and a bazillion subtypes of hentai say hi)
- An enemy of feminism and progressiveness (implied from dormatty character stereotypes. Also, lolicon.)
- Someone who have not (and will never) get laid.

Popular (Read: Something Awful) depiction of a weaboo, then, usually takes the form of a late-20, early-30, pot-bellied, neckbearded and heavily agned American young man with a DS running a dating sim in one hand and a can of coke in the other, plastering his room full of anime posters, filling his cupboards with figurines and maybe even some sex toys. He is most probably unemployed, lives on social security, spends his time playing aforementioned dating sims, jacking off to 2-D girls and figurines, browsing the internet for anime, manga and TV Tropes, write terrible fanfiction/draw terrible animu pictures, practicing kendo with a broomstick and speak lip-Japanese to everyone he sees - IF he sees anyone at all. Complaining about why everyone else gets laid while he cannot even though he has used every tip and trick in the anime male harem lead's arsenal to court girls is an optional trait. Another optional trait is that he longs to visit glorious nihongo (sic) so he could show off his samurai skills and pick up a schoolgirl in maid uniform or some such.

This is also the reason why, in many circles, anime and manga and their derivatives are very looked down upon in many circles, seen as the spreader of this social cancer. That is why Vocaloid and Touhou are seen as a form of softcore child porn proxy. That is why visual novels are almost automatically associated with perverts. That is why "Because Japan" is seen as an acceptable explanation for deviancy and as an almost foolproof insult at anyone with the slightest interest in Japanese history or contemporary culture.

And, for one, I think there is truth in what they say. It is very, very unfortunate.

[Destiny]

I'm not.
I learn japanese since four years, I will go to study in japan for a year next year and I am more interested in Kabuki (a theatre form) and the art of Utamaru then random anime characters.

But I get REALLY annoyed meeting weeaboos. In germany happens a japanese festival day every summer in Düsseldorf. When I habve to use the train on that day it is filled with such people.
Dressed as a anime character (most costumes are bad or there are 20.000 Sasukes instead of a variety of costumes), randomly shouting "kawaii" and "baka", being proud to be called otaku (which is a severe offence in Japan) and totally giggling when someone names any random popular anime series (the last time I met such a group it was Hetalia).
I like Japan. And I like some Anime and Mangas and of course the culture that grew around it there. But I like Japan as a whole, I love the little quirks of the japanese (like the traditions of eating or the interesting way advertisment is used there), I love the architecture (the old as well as the new like the one from Sou Fujimoto), the old arts, the music (with the exception of J-Pop which I dislike heavily).

So whenever someone tells me he likes Japan, but all he knows about it is some random, often even false information from mangas I get a severe headache.